ASK ISRAEL CHIEF RABBI TO REJECT SHACKLING-HOISTING

In a perfect world, cows wouldn’t be consumed in the first place. During this lifetime, we must demand that animals killed for food be spared gratuitous pain and suffering. Israel’s Chief Rabbi has failed to uphold a promise to reject shackling and hoisting. Some 80 percent of Israel’s imported kosher meat begins in South America with alert cows chained upside down by one leg. Muscles and tendons rip apart as the terrified cow dangles for minutes..

Letter to

Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of IsraelRabbi Yona Metzger

I just signed the following petition addressed to:

Rabbi Yona Metzger,

Reject Shackle-and-Hoist Slaughter

I am a concerned citizen who values religious freedom, but draws the line at animal cruelty. I am shocked to learn that 80 percent of kosher meat imported into Israel begins on South American kill floors that shackle and hoist cows. Alert animals are chained upside down by a single leg. Muscles and tendons rip apart as the terrified cow dangles for minutes at a time.

Shackle-and-hoist slaughter is so excruciating it is banned in U.S. and European non-kosher kill plants. As you know, in 2002 the Rabbinical Assembly's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards deemed shackling and hoisting "a violation of Jewish laws forbidding cruelty to animals" and advocated use of upright pens.

The Chief Rabbinate is empowered to choose a small bit of mercy each time it approves kosher meat imported from South America. I respectfully ask you to forbid import from any slaughterhouse that practices shackling and hoisting.

There is no defensible reason, religious or economic, to subject animals killed for food to gratuitous pain and suffering.